Bilateral telemanipulation of unknown objects using remote dexterous in-hand manipulation strategies

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to perform bilateral in-hand (dexterous) telemanipulation of unknown objects. The proposed approach addresses three of the main problems in telemanipulation: \eno{kinematic issues due to the physical differences between the robotic and the human hands;} obtaining coherent haptic feedback to provide information about the manipulation at any time; and time-delays that can affect the stability of the overall closed-loop system. The novelty of the approach lays on the shared control scheme, where the robotic hand uses the tactile and \eno{the} kinematic information to manipulate an unknown object while the operator commands \eno{a} desired orientation of the object without caring about the relation between her/his commands and the actual hand movements. The viability of the proposed approach has been tested through transatlantic telemanipulation experiments between Mexico and Spain.